1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an embossed tissue exhibiting a high perceived softness. The invention further relates to a roll of embossed tissue. The embossed tissue of the invention results in superior overall appearance of the product as well as a consumer perception of improved softness. The embossed tissue of the present invention also results in a more uniformly rolled tissue.
2. Background of the Invention
Tissue produced using conventional wet press technology must usually be embossed subsequent to creping to improve bulk, appearance and perceived softness. It is known in the art to emboss sheets comprising multiple plies of creped tissue to increase the surface area of the sheets thereby enhancing their bulk and water holding capacity. Toilet tissue is usually marketed in rolls, containing a specified number of sheets per roll. Tissue embossed in conventional patterns of spot embossments, when packaged in roll form, exhibit a tendency to be non-uniform in appearance often due to uneven buildup of the debosses as the sheet is wound onto the roll, resulting in a ridging effect detracting from the appearance of the rolls.
Prior art embossing patterns have been set forth which emboss products in a manner selected to avoid nesting of the bosses in rolled, folded or stacked sheets of paper product by various means. For one example of such a pattern, see U.S. Pat. No. 4,659,608.
The present invention provides an embossed tissue which avoids buildup and ridging problems while heightening the consumers perception of softness. In the present invention, the embossing pattern combines relatively shallow stitchlike debossments with deeper more sharply defined signature debossments. The overall arrangement of the pattern is selected so that, even though the sheet is embossed heavily in the signature debossments, the signature debossments fully overlap at a maximum of two locations in the roll, the outermost of these being at least about an eighth of an inch inward frown the exterior surface of the roll. Moreover, the overall average emboss density is substantially uniform for each machine direction strip in the roll. The combined effect of this arrangement is that the rolls possess very good roll structure and do not exhibit the ridging effect found with prior art emboss patterns.
This invention further relates to the discovery that the perceived softness of embossed tissue can be increased greatly if a particular pattern is embossed into the tissue. This pattern combines relatively shallow stitchlike debossments with deeper more sharply defined debossments. The shallow, stitchlike debosses are positioned to give a "puffy" quilted appearance creating the both actual shading and the illusion of shading as would be seen in a quilt having chambers filled with fiber or down. This appearance results from the use of stitchlike rounded debossments arranged in wavy flowing intersecting lines both to simulate the appearance of stitches of a quilt as well as to distort the actual shape of the quilt so that the shape and appearance cooperate to reinforce the "quiltlike" appearance. The waviness of the lines simulates the appearance of stitching displaced from straight lines by the filling in the quilt while creating the appearance of shading resulting from a three dimensional shape. In addition, the wavy flowing lines of debossments actually distort the sheet producing a shape resembling the surface of a filled quilt.
Signature debossments in regions framed by the intersecting wavy flowing lines serve to greatly enhance the bulk of the tissue while also enhancing the distortion of the surface. The signature debossments are elongate and continuous rather than stitchlike, and are embossed to significantly greater depth and have more sharply defined boundaries than the debossments defining the wavy flowing lines. In addition, the signature debossments further enhance the puffy or filled appearance of the sheet both by creating the illusion of shading as well as by creating actual shading due to displacement of the sheet apparently caused by puckering of surrounding regions caused by the heavy emboss given to the signature.